voight



H. G. VOIGHT.

' MEAT HOOK OR THE LiKE. rwrucmou FILED Dec. 5. 191a.

Patented Sept. 16, 1919.

INVENTOR ATTORNEY mull $0., "MW, D. C.

nirnn STATES PATENT onnion.

HENRY VOIG-HT, OF NEW BRITAIN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR 'lO SARG-ENT & COMPANY, OFINEW'HAVEN, CONN ECTICUT, A CORPORATION OFCON'NECTICUT.

MEAT-HOOK OR THE LIKE.

Specification ofLetters Patent. Patented Sept. 16,19ll9t Application filed Deeember 5, 1918.=- Serial No; 265,372i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRYJG. V orsrIT a citizen of the Unlted States, residing 1n= New Britain, county ofl-Iartford, and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Meat-Books or; the like, of Whichthe. following 1s afull, clear, and exact: description.

This invention relates to, means for preventing one relatively movable memberfrom being accidently disengaged from another member, and more particularly it: relates to a gripping means for preventing a. meat hook or the like from being accidentally disengaged from the supporting rail or bracket upon vvhich it is removably mounted.

Meat shops and meat store-rooms are commonly provided with horizontally extend ing supporting rails -01 bracketsupon which a number of. meat; hooks are removably mounted.- These hooks usually are not rigidly secured toithe supporting rail; but: are providedwith a u-shapedportlonwhlch engages the upper edge and thefront and rear faces of the supporting rail in order that the meat hoolomay be readily ad justedback and forth along the same or removed therefrom if desired. One objectiona able feature of thistype'of meat hook is thatwhen it is attempted todisengage a p01 tion or. meat. from thesame, the hook is. oftenilifted n11 andentirely removed from its supportingrail; and sometimes the hook, upon being removed from its rail in this manner, becomesdisengaged from thevpiece of meatvvhichait has been supporting. and falls upon the person handling thenneat; and injures him, as the meat-hook is fairly heavy i andis PlOVldGClWltlI a sharp point.

lhe principal 1 obj'eotq of my invention. is

towprovide a meat hook or the like with simple, but. efficient means for preventing the same from being accidentally d1sengaged from its supporting bracket, although it will be apparentthat the grippingrmeans herein disclosed, is not necessarily limited in its application to a meat hook, since this gripping means is Well adapted to prevent any type of I support i means provided with a U-sh-aped rail engagmgportmn from bemg accidentally disengaged from its supporting rail.

Another object of: my invention is to provide a meathook withgmpping means for securing thesame to its supporting rail in which the construction and location of the gripping element is such that the likelihood of dirtandthe like accumulatinglupon and about the gripping element is reduced to a minimum.

To these andother ends the invention com sists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the. accompanying drawing 2 Figure 1 is a front elevation of a por tion of a supporting rail} having a meat hook mounted upon the same;

Fig. 2 isasectionalwiewthrough the meat hook and supporting rail'disclosed in Fig. 1, themeat hook being provided with my novel rail gripping means.

Fig. 8 is an enlargedsectionalview of a portion of my improved meathook; shown disengaged from its supporting rail,- and" Fig. dis a slightmodification of'the meat hook, shown inFig. 2.

In the drawing I have designatedbyv the numeral 10 a portion of asupporting rail upon which" meat hooks,- such as 11; are commonly mounted. Thistyp'e of meatli'ooli which is 110w in general use; is cornmonl provided with a curved hooked portion :12 having a pointed end l3, sufliciently sharp to be readily forced into a portion ofmeat to be hung upon the same. Them'eat hook 11 is further commonly provided with a U shaped portiondd, which'isadaptedto enthe upper-edge of the supporting rail 10 and the front and rearfaces of th'esame; as above stated. This construction for supporting a meat hook upon itssupporting rail permitsthe sameto be' movedback and fortlna.lo1igtl1e rail; as may be desired,,and

to be readily removed from and applied to the supporting rail. Inorder to preventtl is meathook 11 frombeing accidentally disengaged from its supporting rail 10, in the manner above set forth, when it is attempted to disengage a portion ofmeat from the hook, I have providedthehook 11 with a gripping means, hereiliaftermore fully do scribed; for gripping the rail 10. i

This gripping meansis preferably mounti ed in the rear leg 15 ofthe Urshaped portion 14, and consists ofa"ball 16, which is slid ably mounted in a drill hole l7, extendingj lengthwise of the rear U-shaped n inan inclined direction. This drill hole 17 p1'ef erably extends from the upper outer face of the leg 15 downwardly in an inclined direction, so that it partially cuts through the inner face of the leg 15, as at 18, and terminates a short distance from the lower end of the leg 15, as at 19. The portion of the inner wall of the leg 15, which is cut away by the drill hole 17 is sufficiently large to permit the ball 16 to partially project therethrough, as shown in Fig. 3, but is not large enough to permit this ball to entirely escape from the drill hole 17. I11 order to prevent the ball 16 from being lost out of the drill hole 17, a plug, such as 20, is preferably mounted in the upper end of this drill hole, and if desired, may be secured therein by a small pin, such as 21.. In order that the ball 16 may more readily grip the rear face of the supporting rails 10, I preferably provide a coiled spring 22, which is mounted in the drill hole 17 one end of which spring rests upon the ball 16, and the other end abuts against the plug 20.

From the above description, when read in connection with the drawing, it will be ap parent that when the U-shaped portion 14 of my meat hook is applied to the supporting rail 10, the portion of the ball 16 which protrudes out of the opening 18 will contact with the rear face of the member 10 and will thereby be forced upwardly in the drill hole 17 and away from the rear face of the rail, as shown in Fig. 2, whereby the meat hook 11 may readily be moved into position upon the rail 10, but should force be exerted upon the meat hook, tending to disengage the same from its supporting rail, by raising the hook relatively to its rail, this force would cause the ball 16 to move downwardly within the inclined drill hole and thereby force the ball into gripping engagement with the rail 10 and prevent the hook 11 from being removed from its supporting rail in a very satisfactory manner. In order that the gripping means, just described, may be rendered inactive to permit the hook 11 to be moved from its supporting rail, I have formed a small drill hole 23 in the lower end of the leg 15 through which a piece of wire or the like may be inserted to raise the ball 16 sufficiently to move the same out of gripping engagement with the rail 10, whereupon the meat hook may 'be readily removed from its supporting rail. It should be noted that by mounting the rail gripping means in the rear leg 15 of the meat hook in the manner herein set forth so that it engages the rear face of the rail 10, the likelihood of dirt and grease lodging about the gripping means is reduced to a minimum.

Since the construction of my gripping means is such that the weight of the ball 16 Will normally cause the same to move downwardly into gripping position, the coiled spring 22 is not an essential feature of my invention, for gravity alone will cause the ball to move into gripping engagement, with the rail 10 in a very satisfactory manner. I have, therefore, illustrated in F 1 of the drawing, a modification of my invention in which the spring 22 has been omitted. The structure disclosed in this figure is otherwise similar to that shown in Fig. 2 of the drawing and the operation is the same.

The rail gripping means herein disclosed prevents the meat hook from being accidentally disengaged from its supporting rail in a very satisfactory manner, but this gripping means does not materially interfere with the shifting of the meat hook along the supporting rail 10 in a longitudinal direction.

While I have described my gripping means as applied to a meat hook, it will be apparent that the gripping means herein disclosed may be used in connection with various devices to prevent the same from being accidentally disengaged from its support.

I have not attempted to describe the modifications of the construction which may be adopted without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined in the annexed claims.

lVhat I claim is:

1. In a meat hook or the like, means formed upon the same for engaging a support, said means having a U-shaped construction for contacting with the opposite faces of said support, and a gripping device slidably mounted within one of the legs of said U-shaped portion to automatically grip said support and thereby prevent the meat hook or the like from being accidentally disengaged from its support.

2. In combination with a supporting rail, a supporting member slidably mounted upon the upper face of said rail and movable laterally of said rail into and out of engagement with the same, and rail gripping means carried by said member, comprising a ball movably mounted in a wall of said member and positioned to automatically grip said rail to prevent said member from being accidentally disengaged therefrom.

3. In a meat hook'or the like having a U- shaped portion for engaging a supporting bracket, means upon the same for automatically engaging said bracket to prevent said 'm'eat hook or the'like from being acciden- 5. In combination with a supporting bracket or rail, a supporting member removably mounted thereupon, and constructed to embrace said bracket or rail, means to prevent said member from being accidentally disengaged from said bracket, comprising a ball slidably mounted in a portion of said supporting member, and a spring normally holding said ball in gripping engagement 10 with said bracket.

6. In combination with a supporting bracket, a meat hook or the like having a U-shaped portion for embracing said bracket, one of the legs of said U-shaped portion having an inclined passage formed therein, and gripping means slidably mounted Within said passage and constructed to beforced by the inclination of said passage into gripping engagement with said bracket.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand on the 29th day of November, 1918.

HENRY G. VOIGHT.

topics of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner or Patents, Washington, I). G. 

